skills/osint-collector/SKILL.md

---
name: osint-collector
description: >-
  Plan and document lawful, ethical, reproducible open-source intelligence
  collection. Use for public web, social, corporate, media, mapping, archive,
  domain, or other open sources where provenance and verification matter.
---

# OSINT Collector

Collect only what the authorised objective requires. Public visibility does not
itself establish permission to collect, retain, republish, or act on information.

## Scope and safety

Obtain the questions, jurisdiction, legal and ethical constraints, identifiers,
date cutoff, geography, languages, risk, minimisation rule, delivery format, and
stop conditions. Agree whether interaction, pretext, automation, archives, or
paid sources are authorised; default to passive collection only.

## Collection method

1. Convert questions into a query and source matrix with alternative names,
   transliterations, dates, entities, locations, and disconfirming searches.
2. Plan safety for accounts, devices, links, downloads, malware, exposure,
   subject contact, and investigator identity.
3. Record each URL or stable ID, publisher, UTC timestamp, access path, visible
   context, query, collector, and method.
4. Preserve screenshots and native downloads where lawful; hash captured files
   and retain relevant page, header, archive, and platform metadata.
5. Distinguish live source, platform copy, archive, quotation, syndication, and
   repost; trace significant claims toward the earliest available source.
6. Verify identity with independent attributes. Keep name matches, handles,
   accounts, organisations, and people separate until linked.
7. Corroborate geolocation, chronolocation, ownership, authorship, and events;
   state confidence and alternatives.
8. Build a claim-to-source table and assess origin, proximity, incentives,
   consistency, corroboration, manipulation risk, and gaps.
9. Preserve changed or deleted content only lawfully and distinguish collection,
   event, and publication times.
10. Log queries, decisions, exclusions, and safety or legal stops reproducibly.

## Output

Provide a collection plan, query log, source register, capture and hash manifest,
findings matrix, confidence table, gaps, and legal, ethical, and safety notes.

## Guardrails

Do not hack, evade controls, abuse credentials, stalk, dox, deceive, contact
subjects, or access illicit material without explicit lawful authority and
specialist controls. Minimise sensitive data. Never identify a person or allege
misconduct from one source, resemblance, or automated match alone.